Or, The New 'Birth. 513 tifh Lufts wherein Senfualill:s wallow are not the propct fins 9f the Devil; no, they arc lntellet'tual Sins clarified from fuch dregs, fttch a.s Pride, Malice, Hatred of God and Goo\lnefs, and the like. · . • . Now try your felves by this ; you rulb. not poffiby into the fame excefs of Riot with others, you refift and refrain from outward grofs felf....condcmning fins; but do you ftrivc againft Pride, Hypocrifie, Unbelicf, and Hardncfs of Heart? If fo, this is a good fign that you a~·e. the Children of God, unto whofe fpirit_ual Nature, and unto yourS alfo, thefe fpmtual fins are moft of all contrary ; bnt 1f you arc only cleanfed from the pollutions of the Flelh,and notalfo from the pollutions of the Spirit· if you indulge your felves in Pride, Malice, in Murdering and Revengeful Th~ughts, and the like, know a!furedly you do not bear the Image of God, but the Jmage of the De-r;it, whofe pecultar fins thefe are. . Fourthly, A RegeneMtt Perfonbends hU oppojition f~! againft Heart Sins, and Spiritual 4• . Wickednefi, {o alfo againft his qwn iniquitj_ in a peculiar manner. Da ilid produ'ceth this as ,h~J'!fint a clear evidence of his Integrity in Pfal. t 8. 2~. I was alfo upright before him, and 1;wn ~7: If Aept my {e~f fr!Jm mine ir;iquity· Indeed a Child of God can h1ve no fin his own by jign •f any deliberate Choice and Approbation of it, a's one culled and chofen out (ram the Grau. reft and rcfervcd for him to commit; thus to have any fin a Man's own is incon~ Jifte'nt with true Grace; but fin may be called a Man's own by a too frequent prafiicc of it, and by a too violent Inclination of his Heart unto it. Every one of us hath his peculiar fin that we may call our own, that is more deeply rooted in ns than others arc, whether it arifeth from the Temper of our Nature, or from Cnftom that is a ft.:cond Nature, and from the verge and tendency of our Callings and Employments, or from what ~ccount foeve~ t~ey proceed;. yet there arc fome Sins that a Child of God may call hts own; and·agatnft thefe doth he more particub.rly bend hilllfelf, and tingle them out unto the Combate. Fifthly, A truly Regenerate Perfon rein be careful to avoid all Temptations unto, and all S· occaftons of fin. And therefo:e in that ~rayer that Chrift hath taught us, we firfi: An ,wii pray, That n;c may nat be l~d mto Te~ptatton, and next, That we may be delivered fronJ "'g 110. evil. So is tt the firft care of a C~tld of God that .he be not tempted, and his next ;;:~f:"~;i cue, how he may efcape when he IS tempted. It IS a fign of a Heart wofully en-11//~t;lf(tont tang;led with the love of fin When Men chufe to ~alk upon the very Borders of Sin •fSm,"(ign· and Temptation, and when they are ~nder fi:rong Temptations fccretly pleafeofG•t~u. themfelves with it, becaufe now they thmk they have fame excufe if they yield. Sixthly and lafl: ly, Our oppofitioit againft Sin is a good fign of the Truth ofGrace, when 6. it is not only univerfal againft all Sin, but univerfal from our wh9le rpan ; whm it is not onlj An opf!.J/ifrom our Reafon and Cotifcience, but alfo from our Will and Ajfeflion. For in RegeneratJ~ ti~tJ DJ tht 0 !1 there is a Principle diffufed thorough the whole Man that is contrary to fin, and wh~~t:;a 11 • defl:ruEt-ivc of it in every Faculty ; as it was with Elifha when he ftretched himfeiff,!"; fi. :It over the Shunamite's Child, hi! eyes were againJf the child's eyn, dlld his mouth againfl the ,f Gr,;;. child's; yea, every Limb in him correfponding to every Limb in the Child; fo is it i 1 a Regenerate Man, the new Man that is fpread all over, and covers as it .were the whole old Man, Limb for Limb, it is fprcad over every Faculty of the Sou·r and Body alfo. It is not enough that our Confcicnccs check us for fin, but tbe Will and the AffeCtions mnft be bent againfl: fin; the oppofition muft be from the whole Son! or it is not an evidence of the Truth of Grace. ..1 ' Why now be exhorted to deal impartially with your own !)Quls, look into your own ftate, examine your felves, try whether Jefhs Chrift be formed in you. If your ftate be good, fcarching into it will give you the comfort of it; if you ftatc be bad, fearching into it cannot make it worfe, nay, it is the only way to make it better, for Converfion begins with ConviB:ion. Now if you .have tired your felves by any of thcfe Marks, eith~r you find that you are fuch as are already palfed from Death to Life, or that you are !till ~n a fl:ate of finful Nature; accordingly I !hall d1rcl.t to you a word of Exhortation, and fo !hut up the whole Subject. Firfi:, Ifyou ha"'e a comfortable e1Jidence of your Regeneration, that the habit ofGrace il indeed 1tirought in you, be exhorted to draw it forth into .At1: If you are Born ofGod live then as thofe that are the Children ofGod. This Exhortation I !hall branch o~t in-· to two Particulars; Firfl:,
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